Resident Evil/Tear Jerker

• Hell, if you really wanna get down to it, Resident Evil in general. The premise. The whole town of Raccoon City: innocent women, children, the elderly, hell And Your Little Dog, Too, being infected, killed, and resurrected into flesh-eating, shambling corpses, that YOU have to kill. The worst part? This could have been avoided if Umbrella weren't such dicks.
  • Maybe somewhat similarly, in REmake, just clear the mansion as much as you can, wander the halls, and ponder the deaths of the other members of S.T.A.R.S. for a little while. Especially Edward (poor little teammate Rebecca), Forest (Jill's version of the scene where he's discovered dead does have impact), or Richard (especially if you fail the Timed Mission that ensues after first running into him). All a bunch of brave and perfectly likable men who had no idea what they were up against and ended up brutally murdered. They had a certain amount of backstory, character, and all of that. And you know what? Most of S.T.A.R.S. were kind of friends. And you have to turn out to be just too late to help them out. Seriously do factor in characters' histories with each other the best you can, too - fail the aforementioned Timed Mission as Chris and Rebecca has to watch the guy who showed her the ropes as a S.T.A.R.S. member die; Chris and Forest were somewhat close as well as friendly rivals, and if the latter's zombification doesn't hit you a little bit during a Chris playthrough, have a peek at this, focus on Chris at the very end and listen to the zombie's moans niiiice and closely... Oh. Also Enrico. There was a mission in Umbrella Chronicles from Rebecca's point of view in which she and Richard are searching for their captain, sure that once they find him, everything will be all right. Yeah. Not only does he die, he's last in the game's body count. Not only is it painfully clear that he wasn't able to save his men, the last thing he realizes is that it's because they were all betrayed that all of this had to happen to them. Whether or not any of this actually gets you crying depends on who you are, but it's bound to at least spark a "...son of a bitch" kind of reaction.
    • Might be slightly mitigated by the fact Everyone Lives in the canonical version of RE1's storyline.
• It's a small moment, but in the habitations/save room in the Treatment Plant stage of Resident Evil Zero, if you check all the bunks, on one you'll find a photo stand. Written in the bottom corner of the photo is the sentence: "Daddy, please come home soon." Reminds you that even people who work for the Umbrella Corporation have families.
• The remake/port of the first game on the Gamecube has one. If you are playing as Jill, when you meet Barry in the underground of the mansion, he points his gun at her since Wesker manipulated him by using his family as blackmail. Jill wrestles the gun out of his hand and aims it at him. The monster that has been stalking the player appears and Barry frantically begs Jill to give his gun back. If you say yes, you'll be on the road to the good ending. Say no, and you'll see Jill hesitate, which at this point, the monster attacks Barry, knocking him into the abyss as he drops a photo of his family near Jill.
  • For that matter, the story behind the monster, Lisa, herself, she was once a little girl whose father designed the mansion and unfortunately knew its secrets. She and her mother were kidnapped when Umbrella muredered her father. The two were experimented upon with what would become the T-virus until her mother died. Lisa wasn't as fortunate; she mutated into a grotesque form and her mental faculties degenerated. Lonely, and obsessed with her mother, Lisa went insane. It gets really depressing when you read her diary and the messages from her parents dotting the game.
    • "mom, where? I mis yuo" (typos are from the original, due to Lisa's mental degeneration). Nothing that horrible should happen to a child.
    • Combine Lisa's diary, her mother's letter ("I wish I could touch your face and hold you in my arms right now..."), her father's diary ("Because of my ego, I got both of you involved in this whole damned conspiracy. Forgive me."), and add that pitiful moan at the end on top of it all, "Mo...ther..." Dear God...that last little touch is like twisting a knife that's already embedded in your heart.
• Resident Evil 2: The apparent death of Ada Wong.
  • Which in the A scenario, has probably the saddest piece of music in the game.
  • See also Narm due to cheesy voice acting.
  • In fairness, most RE fans have a high tolerance for this. Of course, the novelization of that scene hits a lot harder, mostly because we as readers have gotten to hear a lot of Ada's thoughts over the course of the story, and have consequently grown more attached to her as a character.
  • Sherry meeting her almost dead mother in Claire B.
• Resident Evil Code: Veronica, when Tragic Monster Steve changes back to human form, but then dies.
  • This Troper clings to the small hope that Steve is alive. Because, otherwise... * sniff*
  • And when Steve had to kill his dad... Definetely a tear jerker.
    • Heck, what happened to Steve throughout his backstory and Code: Veronica. He's in prison because his dad was caught leaking information. His mom was killed because of it, so now he has major trust issues. There's a biohazard and the two survivors are Alfred (who's fucking nuts) and Claire. But, since he has those trust problems, he doesn't trust Claire at first. He has to kill his own dad after he became a zombie. They eventually escape, only to end up in Antarctica. Then they try to escape, only to be foiled by Alexia, who injects him with the t-Veronica virus, which causes him to mutate horribly. He attempts to kill Claire. And dies. Then his body gets stolen by Wesker.
  • This troper may or may not have a little of a sibling complex, but she finds the twins' "reunion" after Alfred gets owned rather twistedly moving. He gets shot, falls down a huge pit, and still manages to drag himself to the spot where Alexia's frozen leaving a bright red blood trail all the while just in time to see her wake up - the last things he sees and probably in his eyes the best thing he could've picked, having literally missed her like crazy while they were apart. As for her, oh, what a fine thing to wake up to, and while herself doesn't change expression at all she blows up Claire and Steve's snowmobile from probably miles away, proceeding to cradle her dead brother, stroking his hair and singing him a lullaby. Somehow it makes it all the worse that with the time Alexia's been frozen for, this is the first time - and obviously ends up being the only time - they've seen each other since they were kids.
• What happens to Manuela in Darkside Chronicles if you get the bad ending. Make sure you take less than ten minutes to avoid it, please.
• Sherry Birkin. She's left alone, for the most part. Her parents don't seem to care very much about her. She gets a call from her mother, telling her to go to the police station. She goes there, only there's zombies everywhere. She's also being chased by her father, who wants to impregnate her with an embryo. She gets infected, later gets cured, only to get stuck in the custody of the U.S. government. Although Word of God says that Sherry is in the custody of the US government, Fanon disagrees, saying that she was adopted by Wesker. In short, nobody knows what happened to her.
  • Now Wesker is dead. Quite dead. This troper vaguely remembers seeing (very) early screenshots of Resident Evil 5 where Chris found a mysterious girl in suspended animation. Obviously, this did not make it into the final game, and the girl in the pod turned out to be Jill Valentine, but Sherry will not be happy that the man who promised to not forget/abandon her not only went back on his word, but (possibly) killed her adoptive father. Angst + Psychic Powers = very bad for Chris.
    • First off, Leon was the one who dealt with her, Chris never encountered her once. Second, no psychic powers. Third, Wesker's Report said that Wesker had her. No idea when they'll deal with that plot point again.
    • Wesker's Report, or at least that part of it, seems to have been Retconned out of existence. Darkside Chronicles makes it explicitly clear that Sherry and Leon were captured by the US government after the destruction of Raccoon City and the government is basically holding Sherry hostage to keep Leon working for them.
  • Her parents don't seem to care very much about her? Not even close. It's implied that both William and Annette cared very much for Sherry, but were simply too busy with their work to be able to spend any time with her, and cherished every moment they could spend together. If anything, the fact that the Birkins were a close loving family makes their tragic fates all the more heartwrenching.
• MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!
  • "LUIIIIIIIIS!"
    • LEEEEOOOOON! HEEEEEEEEEELP!
  • While some people would find it Narmy, Leon constantly yelling out the names of dead people he hardly knows isn't that much of an overreaction. After fighting through an entire village to save Ashley, just for her to get kidnapped again, he has to go through an entire castle and defeat all the enemies there. Then Luis, one of his only allies in the game, shows up with a cure to the parasite that's slowly turning him and Ashley into mind controlled Ganados, just for him to get killed and the virus stolen. Then he has to fight through an island of enemies to save Ashley who was kidnapped again, at one point coming close to killing his love interest Ada due to said parasite. By the time Mike shows up to offer him some much needed assistance, just to die by way of rocket launcher, it's really surprising that Leon hasn't snapped.
  • 4's ending credits...Damn. Seeing how the villagers had a normal life before Saddler started to use them for his own plans brought a tear to more than one gamer's eye.
• Even Outbreak, a side title, manages to be depressing. 8 people fighting desperatly to survive, seeing familier friends, co workers, and family all shambling undead. Cindy sees her co-worker eaten alive, Jim may be forced to kill some of his own co workers, Kevin witnessing the fall of the RPD...Even Bob, Marks friend, can get this troper misty eyed. The only one who seems not to go through any variety of trauma at all from the incident is antisocial plumber David.
  • YMMV on David not suffering either. Through the entire game he seemed enraged at the entire situation and most determined to survive. Then consider that his fighting could all have been in vain... "I'm supposed to feel awful, but I felt like laughing. Why? Well it really doesn't matter now...does it?"
• Despite 5 being so actiony, what really got to this troper was after you fight Jill. She admits that she couldn't control herself and was forced to do horrid things. And you see part of that when she's wearing the bird mask, like infecting the first Uroboros victim.
  • Oh, heck, the whole scene with Jill after she's freed of the control device. She seems so physically tired and so very very sad... Maybe it's just a male thing, but that brought out all of TVTroper Enchanter 468's protective instincts. Seriously, she might as well have had "Needs Hug Badly" written on her forehead.
  • How about the people in the Uroboros facility in those pods? They are all people kidnapped from all over the world to be experimented on. If they're rejected, their bodies are dumped out. That one conveyor belt, you know that one, where they jump up to kill you? They're the experiments that are being dumped out. Mixing Tear Jerker and High Octane Nightmare Fuel together, they will never see their families again, are probably in agony, and half of them are being incinerated alive.
    • The same happened to personnel in the labs. You can find an e-mail in which a scientist is glad to return soon to his friends and family. A couple levels later you will find a report on how all who worked here were put in coma by sleeping gas, terminated and cremated. Yes, everyone, including that scientist.
  • What makes the Jill battle even more tearjerking is if you're playing as Chris and hit the action button (Square on the Play Station 3, X on the XBOX 360, F on the PC) Chris begging Jill to stop this, but all the while she tries, but can't until Chris or Sheva rip the device off of her.
• Speaking of RE 5, remember the documents you can read? How about Village Youth's Diary? It describes how people from the village became Majini through the eyes of one of them.Extremely sad and depressing tale which ends with a storyteller becoming Majini himself.
• May be a meta example, but while looking through the resident evil crowning pages I noticed there was nothing on heartwarming. This troper became rather sad when he couldn't think of anything to add.
• At the beginning of the trailer for RE 6, Leon is forced to kill the President of the United States, who has become infected with a virus (presumably the T-Virus) and turned into a zombie. Keep in mind that he's a personal friend of Leon.
  • Especially when you're one of the people that theorize Leon doesn't havevery many close friends. The one friend he had turned into a zombie. This man went through many scenarios where he jumped to kill the once human monsters with no hesitation. In RE2, he averted Not a Zombie as soon as the game began, and yet, when he sees the president turn into a zombie, he can't do anything but breathe heavily, pointing his gun, and say "Stay right where you are" with his voice shaking (yes, this smooth wisecracker at a loss for words.) When the president lunges forward, he has to yell "Mr. President!" before a shot rings out. And it's not revealed who the president attacked, or who shot.
• Leon in general. As mentioned above it's theorized Leon doesn't have very many close friends. He screams Luis' name at his death, a man he knew for less than a day. His comrade, Krauser, went evil and they had to have a fight to the death. Ada is constantly backstabbing him (although it's comforting to know she does care for him and actively avoids having to kill him.) Sherry is used to blackmail him into a government job. The only real friends he has at this point are Claire and Hunnigan. The man's went through a lot and it's a wonder he hasn't gone crazy.
• Rachael's death in Revelations. Trapped and cornered, as an Ooze kills her she desperately pleads for help, tearfully wishing this was all a bad dream. And then she becomes the very thing she fought against...
• In "Operation Racoon City", near the end of the the game you have the choice to either kill or protect Leon. Unless all four people choost one option, you end up killing the other memebers of your team. What's truly heartbreaking is throughout it all, both sides are trying to convince the other to come over to their side. Despite all the friction and animosity shown, these pieces of dialougue show that they all cared for each other and having to fight each other to the death is really heartrending for them